All Alone
by dkfndsoalvcjwkri
Summary: He sat there as the girl who seemed unbreakable, broke. The girl who always laughed, cried. The girl that never stopped trying, giving up and wondered why it bothered him so much.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N -** okay I've been waiting to write this for months and I knew if I didn't start now I'd never write it. Read and review, let me know if you think its worth continuing. the name of this fic "All Alone" is just something i came up with in bed one night and will probobly change at some point but if anyone had anything they thought was better suited then im open to suggestions :)

**Disclaimer:** no matter how much I love Harry Potter unfortunately I don't own it.

**Summary:** He sat there and watched as the girl who seemed unbreakable, broke. The girl who always laughed, cried. The girl that never stopped trying, giving up. She dropped the fake smile she had been wearing all day and let that lone tear run down her cheek and whispered "I don't want to be like this anymore".

**All Alone**

**Chapter 1**

Waiting. She hated it. She was one of the most impatient people you will ever meet. But that is exactly what she as doing, and had been doing all night – waiting.

She sat on a tall stool at the kitchen worktop of this cold and seemingly empty house trying hopelessly to block out the screaming coming from upstairs. She clutched her mug of lukewarm coffee tightly and tried to imagine that she was anywhere but here… it never worked. Because every time she tried another blood curdling scream would sound from the top floor bringing her back to reality. Back to hell.

Opening her eyes she looked out of the kitchen window, it was raining; it always seemed to be raining these days. Tearing her gaze from the storm raging outside she looked around the kitchen she sat in at this ungodly hour. Dark, damp and dull, these were the first words that sprung to mind when she saw the room. It was a sort of refugee house set up for those who had lost everything in the war this last year. It was the bear minimum, just enough to survive on but it was better than nothing. The kitchen had a stove, a fridge and a sink. The living room had a couple of sofas and chairs with a big bay window out front looking out onto London. The entire building was 3 storeys high, the bottom 2 floors had 3 bedrooms and the top one had a large attic room, where the screaming was coming from.

She pulled her auburn hair into a lose bun at the base of her neck leaving a few stands to fall out and frame her face. She sighed loudly. This was not how things were supposed to have gone. Right now she should have been back in France, safe with her Grand-mère not sitting in a refugee house waiting for a new arrival who was now over an hour late.

Aurore Laurent, a 16 year old French witch ran her hands over her face and through her hair, silently closing her eyes as yet another pain induced scream ripped throughout the house. She hated this house, hated how depressed it made her feel, hated the fake smile she had to plaster on her face every morning for the young children, now orphans, when they woke up for the day so as not to upset them even more.

She was counting down the days until she could leave England, or what was left of it, leave this horrid house and return to France to her remaining family. But all that would have to wait until the Ministry made their way through the long list of people desperate to leave and be re-united with loved ones and set her up a portkey. She hated waiting.

Just as she was about to give up and head to bed there was a loud knock at the door. Sighing heavily again she got up from her stool and made her way to the front door. Opening it slowly she saw him dressed all in black and soaking wet from the storm. She might not have known who it was at first as he blended perfectly with the dark street but the pale skin and white blonde hair gave it away immediately.

"Malfoy, you are over an hour late, where have you been?" she spoke harshly not at all happy to be up an extra hour.

"Well sorry" he drawled in reply, not sounding at all apologetic "but it's a little bit hard to slip out of my home these days"

Aurore huffed but let it drop she was definitely not in the mood to argue with him she decided just to show him to his room quickly and get to bed as soon as she good, any sleep these days was precious as it was near impossible with the constant shrieking every night.

"Fine, come on your room is upstairs" she said while turning her back to show him the way.

He followed her without complaint, something she was thankful for, up the creaky stairs of the narrow house to the second floor and pointed to a room on the far left.

"This is yours; breakfast is at 9, goodnight Malfoy"

"Goodn-" he was cut off by yet another scream, one of the loudest so far and Aurore winced not only at the sound but at the fact that now she would have to explain the situation to Malfoy and she really couldn't be bothered.

She opened her eyes to find him clutching his wand tightly in hand and looking around franticly as if searching for the source.

"Relax Malfoy, put your wand away, its just one of the other 'guests' who has a hard time at night okay?" she said hoping he would buy it and not ask anymore questions, although she knew he wouldn't and she would have to explain at some point.

"Well couldn't someone put up a damn silencing charm at least" he grumbled "I need my sleep"

"We all do Malfoy but we've tried silencing charms and they don't work, her screams always break through so we just stopped trying" she said quickly just wanting to get this over with and go to bed.

"Who?" he said curious

"Look Malfoy, ill tell you but you can't ask me anything else tonight, if you really want to know then I'll tell you tomorrow, okay?"

"Yes fine now who is it?" he replied quickly

She took a deep breath and looked him straight in the eye.

"Hermione Granger"

**A/N -** So its not very long just now but I wanted to know if you think its worth continuing because right now im not sure if i like it. it sounded a lot better in my head..

Emma x


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: no matter how much I love Harry Potter unfortunately I don't own it.

A/N – sorry this took so long but as of today ive started my exams so for like the past month ive been so busy with revising that ive barely had time to write. Hope you like the second chapter. Read and Review please, I love to hear what you think (:

All Alone

Chapter 2

He barely slept that night. He barely slept most nights these days, he had become accustomed to living on the bare minimum and only staying awake with the aid of strong coffee. His dreams- nightmares really were always the same, he would see flashes of the snake-like man sitting at his dining table, the face of Charity Burbage as she pleaded with Snape, being forced to torture Rowle when he failed the Dark Lord, the day Potter had turned up at his manor and Grangers screams as his aunt tortured her. Every night the same and every night he would sleep for an hour or so before waking in a cold sweat his sheets tightly gripped in his fists. He would look frantically round the room not recognising his surrounding before the nights events would return to him and he could relax once more. After he woke for what seemed like the millionth time he sat up in bed and thought about the French girls' words.

Hermione Granger. Granger. She was upstairs, just one floor above him and although the screaming had stopped a couple of hours ago he could still hear odd pain filled noise through the roof of his room. He wondered what she could possibly be doing here; he had just assumed that she would be celebrating the end of the war with Potter and Weasley. He had heard that she and the Weasel had gotten together in the middle of the war, why wasn't she with him? Why wasn't she at the Weasley hovel with everyone from their side just being happy?

Being the exact opposite from him, in the month following the war he found he couldn't even leave his home without being on the receiving end of some comment from a passer by. No one seemed to be particularly happy that the Malfoy's had gotten off without punishment, they felt that even though by the end of the war they were no longer really on the side of the Dark Lord it wasn't enough to excuse them from Azkaban. It seemed in the eye of the public, at least, once a death eater always a death eater.

Malfoy Manor wasn't much better than the streets if he was being honest. The ministry had very publicly searched and stripped it and his mother was quieter than she had ever been, slowly sinking into depression. His father, the main reason he had left his home, his father spent the last month either drinking in his study or complaining, constantly complaining, about the way he was being treated- like it wasn't his fault they were outcasts in the first place. He had got them all involved with the Dark Lord and _now_ he was complaining? It had drove him crazy so he decided that the best option was just to leave, he had heard of the many so called refugee houses all across England and decided that for now this was his best bet until he could find a place of his own. He had owled three different places but only one had room for him so in the dead of night he had packed a bag of clothes and other necessities, shrunk it and left.

Sighing he ran his fingers through his hair and got out of bed. Not caring about time, there was no way he was going back to sleep now- he had enough nightmares for one night, he grabbed a white t-shirt from his bag and flattened his hair with his hand into an acceptable style, because God forbid a Malfoy ever look anything but perfect!

He quietly made his way out of his room and down the stairs hoping to be the first up so he could just sit around himself some more. No such luck. He froze just outside of the kitchen as he heard a soft female voice humming a random tune. He was just about to turn and make his way back upstairs, he was in no mood to start up a conversation but it was too late.

"Ah, you must be Draco, how did you sleep?"

She was leaning slightly on the kitchen counter and wore a lose fitting white –shirt, red pyjama bottoms and white slippers. Her hair was white blonde, although slightly greying at the roots and her face had some light wrinkles on it. In her hand was a silver spatula which was covered in what Draco guessed was pancake mix.

"Oh..erm it was fine..er thanks" he replied not really knowing what else to say.

"Good, take a seat. Well you're a little early for breakfast, its only half 8, not that it matters of course you'll get some peace before the younger ones get up" she said while turning back to her frying pan of batter

"Younger ones?" he repeated wondering just how many people actually stayed here besides him.

"Oh yes, you were the last one we could fit it you see, we've got Michael and Sarah they're both 8, and erm.. Little Finn he's only 4 and then we've got Olivia, she's 13 and her little brother Charlie, he's six" she said while looking over her shoulder "it gets at little crowded but we make do"

Draco's eyes widened slightly that was a lot of people for such a small house, plus he had never been good around small children, they were just so.. _messy._

"Yeah… I can see what you mean about crowded" he replied still a little shocked by the amount of people that were forced into such a tiny place.

He was saved from any further conversation with the women when she turned and set a large plate of pancakes in front of him.

"Here you go, you're best to get in first it gets a bit mental when everyone is up"

"Oh right..erm thanks..er again" he said not really knowing what else he could say to her, he felt beyond awkward.

"No bother, no bother at all" she said moving to sit at the table across from him a cup of tea in hand "Oh! I forgot to tell you I'm Marie by the way, you met Aurore last night I presume?"

"Yeah, she didn't seem to happy to see me though" he said becoming slightly more relaxed around her

"Its nothing personal, trust me, its just the girl likes her sleep and I was.." she cleared her throat "Erm..busy last night"

Draco sat up straighter at the mention of last night, there was a thousand ways he could go about finding out why Hermione Granger was upstairs, but he decided that the quickest way was just to be blunt and to the point.

"Why is she here?" he asked "Granger I mean"

Marie began to shift uncomfortably and avoided looking at him.

"Its really not my place to say.." she began "I don't even know the full story"

"Well then tell me what you know" he said, he had no idea why he was so desperate to know other than just curiosity.

"Look, she just turned up one night, as mess. She's barely told me anything all I know is that she is alone, she has no one to turn to just now" she said quietly

"Well that's clearly not true, those Gryffindor types, friends forever and all that, she must have _someone_" he said not believing for a moment that Granger was truly alone.

Marie's eyes fixed on him.

"Believe me she has _no one_, she hasn't spoken of anyone since she got here 3 weeks ago, well the poor girl's hardy spoke at all. You should go up and see her Draco, if you wanted"

Draco scoffed at that idea, him go and see Granger, not likely.

"Oh yes I can see that cheering her up, I'm the last person she wants to see, she hates me and I assure you the feelings mutual".

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure if I were you, when I told her you were coming here she said 'Draco Malfoy..hmm.. he's probably the closest thing to a best friend ive got at the moment' so there you go"

He paused in eating his pancakes; he was the closest thing she had to a best friend? Well things can't have been going well for her then. He sat for a moment wondering just what he could possibly say in return to that, but he was saved when the sound of several sets of feet running down the stairs came into range and 4 children came running through the kitchen door followed by Aurore carrying baby Finn.

Before he knew it he was surrounded by children and looking desperately for an escape, he'd never been around young children unless you counted first years but this was different, apart from the slightly older girl- Olivia he remembered, they were all between 4 and 8, he hated children if he was being honest, all they did was make a mess. Marie seemed to notice his discomfort because she took his plate from him and told him that if he wanted he could leave and go back upstairs, escape the noise- and the mess. He practically ran up the stairs to his own room and began to pace the floor. He wanted to know what was wrong with Granger. Where were Potter and Weasley? Why did she scream during the night? And most importantly why was she all alone?

Draco wanted answers, and he was going to get them.


End file.
